This invention relates to an improved railroad crossing structure.
In recent years, considerable efforts have been made to provide an improved railroad crossing structure, one which is both safe for rail and vehicle traffic and which eliminates the foremost causes of grade crossing problems. While many railroad crossing structures have been proposed, and a number of them have provided various improvements, the majority if not all of these proposed structures have been generally unsatisfactory, for one reason or another.
For example, while most of the proposed structures have improved the safety for both rail and vehicle traffic, they have failed to satisfactorily eliminate the various grade crossing problems encountered by the railroads in installing and maintaining the crossing structures. One of the principal objections and the major problem with the presently available crossings is the fact that the railroad ties and/or the spacers normally used during installation of the crossing structures tend to deteriorate in a relatively short time, to the point where these ties and/or spacers must be replaced. Replacing the ties and/or spacers, of course, requires that the entire structure be torn up. The reason that the ties and/or spacers deteriorate is due to the fact that the crossing structures normally are secured in place by means of spikes or the like driven through the crossing structures into the ties or spacers. Many times the ties and spacers are split when the spikes are driven, or they subsequently split after vehicle or rail traffic has passed over the crossing for a period of time. Many of the spikes also simply loosen and, thus, no longer function to secure the crossing structure in place.
Another major problem lies in the deterioration of the ballast or sub-structure which subtends the ties and, hence, the rails and crossing structures, as a result of moisture which enters and/or is retained therein. Many of the proposed and/or available crossing structures lack adequate means for eliminating this moisture.
Other problems exist which the prior crossing structures fail to satisfactorily solve, thus the industry is still seeking to provide a crossing structure which not only solves most, if not all, of these various problems, but one that also is commercially feasible and is easy to install and maintain.